Cassie's PA adventure!

Cassie has been in Pennsylvania this weekend, enjoying special alone time with Tim's parents. I have deeply missed my little girl, but know that they need to have weekends together to build grandparently bonds! She's stuck to her routine pretty well...sleeping and eating normally...and apparently hasn't been fussy at all (or at least, that's what they're telling me!).

Tim had his Penn State Volleyball alumni weekend so Cassie was dropped off in Harrisburg on the way North. Shockingly, the Volleyball alums beat the Varsity team when they played each other Saturday afternoon. Tim was pretty pleased with the way he played too...he loves the challenge of real competitive play. Today all will return home to normal life-laundry, tutoring, work, etc.

Please pray for our family...we're dealing with some serious challenges right now and are in desperate need of God's intervention.

Make new friends, but keep the old

It's been a sick week-again-for us at the Hoffman home. Cassie has been sick since we got home from Pennsylvania so I took her to the doctor yesterday, just to make sure there wasn't something serious going on. She checked out okay...guess she just has a really bad cold. I suspect she's also getting some new teeth since she seems to be especially drippy-drooley. As usual, she seems to be making lots of new discoveries while sick...new words, creative approaches to playtime, etc. Yesterday we talked about several new words-"doctor", "noodle" (it was Italian night so we were boiling noodles for dinner), "socks and shoes", "bear" "baby" etc. Her favorite words are still "apple" and "some". She uses "some" to ask for whatever it is I have that she wants. Guess I've asked her one too many times if she wants "some" and now she's picked up on that as a magic word. :)

Another precious development is Cassie's newfound interest in my childhood Stieff Bear, "Mary-Beary". My parents bought me Mary-beary when I was 5 or 6 as a comforting friend to sleep with and help me through scary times in the dark. Sadly, Mary-Beary never was able to irradicate my fears but she sure was special to me. Now, Cassie has begun carrying Mary all over the house...she rocks Mary in her rocking chair, hugs her and says 'baby'. It's quite sweet to see MY baby loving on Mary-beary...I never could have imagined as a child that the Mary-beary I cuddled at night would be the same one that MY baby would cuddle. Wow...almost makes me want to break into song, "the cirrrcle of liiiiife". Interesting too that when I googled Stieff stuffed animals I discovered that Mary-beary is now valued at $500 +. Oh well, too bad cause I'm not selling her!

CarePages - Photo Gallery

CarePages - Photo Gallery

I hope you can access this link to my friend's carepage. Shanda's baby Calla is beginning to lose hair due to the chemo...please pray! If this is breaking my heart-hundreds of miles away-I can't even begin to comprehend the pain Shanda must be feeling. The first picture is pre-chemo and the second...during chemo. Ugh...my heart hurts!